1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to audio processing, and more particularly to processing an audio signal to suppress noise.
2. Description of Related Art
Audio devices such as cellular phones are used in many types of environments, including outdoor environments. When used outdoors, an audio device may be susceptible to wind noise. Wind noise occurs primarily from actual wind, but also potentially from the flow of air from a talker's mouth, and is a widely recognized source of contamination in microphone transduction. Wind noise is objectionable to listeners, degrades intelligibility, and may impose an environmental limitation on telephone usage.
Wind interaction with one or more microphones is undesirable for several reasons. First and foremost, the wind may induce noise in the acoustic signal captured by a microphone susceptible to wind. Wind noise can also interfere with other signal processing elements, for example suppression of background acoustic noises.
Several methods exist for attempting to reduce the impact of wind noise during use of an audio device. One solution involves providing a physical shielding (such as a wind screen) for the microphone to reduce the airflow due to wind over the active microphone element. This solution is often too cumbersome to deploy in small devices such as mobile phones.
To overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, there is a need for an improved wind noise suppression system for processing audio signals.